Electric-Field Assembly of Particles via Anisotropic Interactions

1336893PI：Wu这个项目旨在通过结合胶体颗粒的不同几何、组成和界面属性以及外加电场来创建、调整和利用胶体颗粒中的各种各向异性相互作用。其目的是使用一种互补的实验和理论方法来阐明各种类型的微观各向异性相互作用和由此产生的介观组装相之间的基本联系。这种基本的理解也将被用来开发一种可扩展的过程，将电场和对流场结合在一起，构建具有新颖光学性能的宏观功能涂层。各向异性相互作用和动态路径的原位操纵通常会导致对称性降低和方向性增强的微结构和纳米结构。这些结构可以与广泛的电磁波以独特的方式相互作用，并显示出在单个粒子水平上没有表现出来的集体等离子体、光子、光电子和磁光性质。因此，该项目开发的可伸缩涂层技术可以经济地制造下一代功能材料，这些材料在高效率太阳能电池、光子晶体和节能显示器等与能源相关的应用中具有巨大潜力。这项研究将与教育和外展工作完全结合起来，包括培训丹佛地区的公立学校教师，开发与胶体相关的学习模块，以及参与针对高中生的暑期研究计划。

1336893PI: WuThis project aims at creating, tuning, and exploiting a variety of anisotropic interactions in colloidal particles by a combination that consists of varying geometric, compositional, and interfacial properties of the particles and an application of an external electric field. The objective is to use a complementary experimental and theoretical approach to elucidate the fundamental links between various types of microscopically anisotropic interactions and the resulting mesoscopically assembled phases. This fundamental understanding will also be used to develop a scalable process that integrates both electric and convective flow fields to build macroscopic functional coatings that exhibit novel optical properties.In-situ manipulation of the anisotropic interactions and dynamic pathways will typically lead to micro- and nano-structures with reduced symmetry and enhanced directionality. These structures can interact with a broad range of electromagnetic waves in unique ways and exhibit collective plasmonic, photonic, optoelectronic, and magneto-optical properties that are not manifested at the level of single particles. As a result, the scalable coating technique developed in this project could lead to economical fabrication of next-generation functional materials that have great potential in energy-related applications, such as high-efficiency solar cells, photonic crystals, and energy-saving displays. The research will be fully integrated with education and outreach efforts that consist of training public school teachers in the Denver area, developing the learning modules related to colloids, and participating in summer research program for high school students.